case study: experiences using ibm rational method composer to deliver a bpm intranet for a major...

June 5–9 Orlando, Florida

Case Study: Experiences Using IBM Rational Method Composer to Deliver a BPM Intranet for a Major Healthcare Provider

Greg HodgkinsonPractice Director, Lifecycle Tools and Methodology, [email protected]

The Premier Event for Software and Systems Innovation

2© 2011 IBM Corporation

What are we covering in this hour?

What are we trying to achieve?

1. Optimizing the software delivery lifecycle business process through a Center of Excellence (CoE)

Why have we chosen the tools we have?

2. Using Rational Method Composer (RMC) to develop a CoE website

What does a CoE website look like?

3. Demo: A CoE website

How do you go about planning for a CoE?

4. Planning your CoE

What do the tools look like?

5. Demo: RMC to build your CoE intranet

Any useful tips or tricks for using these tools?

6. Tips and tricks



The Prolifics Lifecycle Tools and Methodology practice

One of many practices at Prolifics: BPM, SOA, Integration, User-Experience, Security, Development and Administration, Automation and Systems Management, Testing.

Two main responsibilities:

1. Position Rational tools across the software development lifecycle for our teams and for our customers.

2. Formalize software development approach across our different lines of business and practices.

Lifecycle Tools and Methodology

Practice



Optimizing the Software Delivery Lifecycle business process

Software development processes should be treated just like any other business process.

Optimize: Reduce redundancy

Automate tasks

Improve efficiency

Improve accuracy

Sign-offs quick and efficient

High-level plans and detailed task

plans in synch

Automated integrations delivered

continuously for test

Iteration workflows efficient across team members

Environment setup automated

Efficient tools for specifying

requirements and designs, ensuring team

is on right track

Application promotion deployments automated

Progress always visible

Prolifics Software Factories: Experienced teams, optimized processes, highly tuned tools



What are some of the needs for a Center of Excellence?

How do we structure our teams?

Who do I need to work with?

Where do we start? What next? And after that?

What tools and technologies do we use and when are they used?

What is the best way to use these tools and technologies to give us the best outcome?

Where can I find assets that will help me get my work done quicker?

How do we ensure good governance?

How do we ensure “joined-up-thinking” across teams?

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Issue: Information lost deep in documents

Where did I define what

interaction and collaboration services are?

Where did I define what a

lead BPM architect is

responsible for?

Where did I define who is responsible for developing test

plans?

Where did I define the roles in the delivery team?

Where is my checklist for as-is process models?



Issue: Cross-referencing related materials

This document mentions both WPS and WebSphere Lombardi Edition as a

“Dynamic Process & Decision Services”. Now where did do I find selection criteria

to choose between them?

Image: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Issue: Keeping references in synch

All of these documents refer to a BPM Architect. What happens if I need to change the name of that

role?



Issue: Managing variants of the process

I can probably create variants of my SDLC by using copy-and-

paste. But how do I keep these variants up-to-date with changes

made to the base SDLC?

Variant 1 for BPM Projects

Variant 2 for Integration

Projects

Variant 3 for Portal

Projects

Variant 4 for Data

Projects



Issue: Sharing work on monolithic documents

Terry

Peter

Bryan

I want to update the

work products for this

task.

I want to update the task names

for these tasks.

I want to add new roles for this task.



Issue: Execution differing from documentation

Terry theTeam Lead

Peter the ProcessServer Developer

Alex the Architect

Tony theTester

Amy the Analyst

How do I make sure that the team’s activities match up with the defined process?

What the process is saying What the team is doing



Issue: Silos of process within functional boundaries

Terry theTeam Lead

What happens if my team needs to do

all of these things? How do I define a process across

these silos?

How to do BPM development

How to do integration development

How to do UI development



Using Rational Method Composer to develop a CoE website

Create, customize, publish, and enact iterative and incremental practices according to project needs

Governance

Customizable Process Library

Rational Unified Process

Process Design & Management

IBM Practices

IBM Practices

CMMICMMI

GDDGDD

SOA Gov

SOA GovITUPITUP

Tooling

Author Manage Re-use Configure Tailor Publish Reporting Deploy EstimateOver 100 practices and processes to

leverage & customize…Over 100 practices and processes to

leverage & customize…

Rational Method Composer v7.5 Share, manage, and download practices as

assets with Rational Asset Manager (RAM) integration

Browse, select, and preview content more simply and intuitively

Simply customize loosely coupled and alternative practices

Jump start creating and extending content with plug-in templates and wizards

Configure content in a more flexible way using tags, queries and wizards

Provide simple update and feedback mechanisms

Develop



What does a CoE website look

like?



A software factory mindset to software delivery best practice

Definition of a software factory

Structured combination of people

(roles) and tools following a

standardized approach to produce software solutions.

Similar to production lines, both having:

1. Repeatable process

2. Specialization of roles

3. Employ tools

4. Assemble solution from parts

5. Assembly done incrementally

6. Focus on quality and efficiency



Eating the elephant – Breaking SDLC down into practices

Can break down content of end-to-end SDLC into discrete practices.

Quality Practices

50. Test case specification51. Automated code quality verification52. Automated testing53. Manual testing54. User acceptance testing

Configuration, Release and Environment Mgt. Practices

55. SCM-based configuration management56. Automated continuous integration57. Release management58. Defect tracking59. Environment and tooling setup60. Environment automation61. Asset sharing

Rollout, Support and Handover Practices

62. Application rollout63. Application support64. Application handover

Requirements Practices

27. Needs & features analysis28. System use case analysis29. Business process analysis30. Automated business process discovery31. Solution ROI calculation32. Business domain analysis33. Business rules analysis34. Non-functional requirements analysis35. System-wide requirements analysis36. UI storyboarding37. System context analysis38. Integration analysis39. Information gathering using questionnaires40. Information gathering using workshops

Architecture Practices

40. Application & technical architecture tracks41. SoaML component and interaction design42. Reference architecture-based platform selection43. Design pattern-driven design44. Data modeling45. Deployment modeling

Implementation Practices

46. Specification-driven development47. Applying implementation standards48. Unit testing using frameworks49. Solution prototyping

Planning Practices

1. Risk-value phasing2. Requirements-based release planning3. Incremental delivery using iterations4. Scheduled tasks5. Two-level planning6. Estimation using design categorization7. Project budget management8. Role- and skills-based staffing9. Responsibility agreement10. Change request scope management11. Test planning

Governance Practices

12. Regular showcases to customers13. Regular team progress checkpoints14. Retrospectives15. Project methodology fitting16. On-the-job mentoring and guidance17. Peer reviews18. Specifications customer review and sign-off19. Regular timesheet and expense report completion20. Issue and risk management and tracking21. Consultant status reporting22. Project status reporting23. Work item-based progress tracking24. Project startup activities25. Project closure activities



What do we mean by formalizing practices?

Ad hoc practice

1. Rarely or sporadically applied

2. Lack of consistency in output

3. Hard to quantify how much effort is required

4. Uncertainty around who is responsible

5. Inefficiently applied

6. Little or no examples

7. No common template

8. Hard to enable new participants

9. Uncertainty about trace to other practices and to overall lifecycle

10. No consistency of tooling

11. Hard to assess whether been done correctly

Formalized practice

1. Consistently applied

2. Output is more predictable

3. Effort is more predictable

4. Responsibility is clear

5. Efficiently applied

6. Illustrated with examples

7. Common template for creating work products

8. Reference material to enable new participants

9. Clear trace to other practices and overall lifecycle

10. Consistency of tooling

11. Guidelines for assessing correctness



What is in a formalized practice?

Here are some of the common things that are found in a practice.

1. Guidance on how to adopt the practice.

2. Explanation of the key concepts around that practice.

3. Definition of the roles that are a part of this practice.

4. Definition of the work products that are a part of this practice, along with suitable

examples and where necessary templates.

5. The tasks that are applicable to this practice, defined down to step level.

6. A reference workflow that shows how these tasks fit together.

7. A definition of the tools that are applicable for this practice, along with How-To

documents where deemed important.

8. General guidance materials for the practice e.g. definitions of patterns,

standards, etc.

9. Any assets related to this practice e.g. reference install desktop.

10. Guidance on how to assess this practice.



An incremental approach to practice formalization

1. Prioritize practices

2. Estimate practice formalization

3. Scope into releases

4. Deliver against release plan



Building a plan to setup your Center of Excellence

Delivering a successful CoE requires more than just developing the website.

3. Pilot project usage

5. Formal adoption

2. CoE construction

4. Update based on pilot1. Kickoff and

analysis



Plan: Kickoff and analysis activities

Initial activities are key to provide a good grounding for the Center of Excellence.

1. Define the vision for the Center of Excellence.

2. Hold workshops with all key stakeholders to get their buy-in and understand their context.

3. Discover and join-up with any existing best practice, governance, and methodology initiatives – discover allies!

4. Understand and assess as-is SDLC and practices.

5. Prototype the CoE website for stakeholders to get early feedback.

vision

stakeholders

as-is

Image: wiangya / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Plan: Constructing the CoE website

Incremental development of an integrated CoE website that covers SDLC, roles, tools and practices.

1. Gather existing materials like templates and examples of work products.

2. Practices need to fit into SDLC (or other lifecycles) – extend/contribute roles, tasks, work products.

3. Figure out what additional guidance will be best – quality not quantity! Must add value. Discuss as a team.

Templates? Checklists? Guidelines? Tooling “how-to” materials? Other guidance materials?

4. Design before build.

5. Leverage community or licensed materials.

6. Define how to adopt and how to assess each practice.

7. Use existing document management solutions.

8. Review published website Easy to access practices as part of SDLC? Easy to access as standalone

practices?

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Plan: Pilot and then formally adopt

Using a pilot project (or projects) to trial early usage of formalized practice materials.

1. Bolster with direct involvement of CoE team to allow trialing “with the training wheels on”.

2. Immediate benefit to projects in advance of formal adoption activities.

3. Quality issues with materials will be quickly spotted and fed back to CoE team.

4. Good forum to gather wish-list of additions/improvements.

5. Refine CoE materials based on feedback from pilot, and then formally roll out to wider teams.

Image: Phiseksit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



Plan: Keep growing

Keep assessing and improving.

1. Growing doesn’t mean just getting bigger!

2. Have formal assessment points as well as ad hoc channels for feedback.

3. Don’t always try and fully formalize a practice all at once – you can incrementally increase the amount of formalization over time.

4. Make sure you learn from what your user community is asking for (and complaining about!).

5. Never try and formalize everything – there is no need – keep efforts prioritized to where the real need is.

Image: Sujin Jetkasettakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net



What does the CoE tooling look

like?



Tips and tricks: Be careful how you structure your plug-ins

As with software development, careful architecture improves extensibility and maintainability over time.

Define plug-in contents and dependencies. Cannot have bi-directional dependencies.

Separate core materials, processes, practices and publishing materials.

Use templates.

foundation.roles

foundation.tasks

default.copyright

foundation.workproducts

plugin1

plugin2



Tips and tricks: Creating variants of your lifecycles

A key benefit of using RMC to describe your lifecycles is that it is easy to create and maintain variants for different styles of projects.

Take a component-based approach and building your lifecycles.

Create specializations of reusable process components.

Suppress unwanted tasks/activities/phases. Make use of Local Contributions for more involved customizations such as adding tasks.



Tips and tricks: Include templates for execution of SDLC

Another benefit is to export execution templates for lifecycles defined in RMC.

Generate an MS project plan. Generate an RTC work items template.

Attach these as templates to work products. When used, templates have links back to content in website.



Tips and tricks: Opening up contributions with Rational Team Concert

Coupling RMC with RTC provides a number of benefits.

Plan work using RTC release planning. Track feedback from user community.

Integrate work from multiple process engineers using RTC SCM and build.

Use Jazz Practice Library Management to allow team members to edit process directly without needing RMC.

Process Engineer 1 Process Engineer 2

Integration stream

Automated publish engine



Four “Ace” take-away points

1. A Center of Excellence website that formally defines your processes and practices is a great asset to help your teams improve their software delivery business process.

2. Taking a practice-based approach allows you to target your practice formalization efforts to where they can deliver the most value.

3. Rational Method Composer allows you to create a Center of Excellence website that integrates practices into process, along with tooling guidance, and allows you to extend the coverage of your CoE across functional boundaries.

4. Rational Team Concert is a fantastic companion tool to use to plan, manage, integrate and deploy your CoE, as well as tracking feedback from your user community and opening up the CoE growth activities.



www.ibm/software/rational

www.prolifics.com



Daily iPod Touch giveaway

Complete your session surveys online each day at a conference kiosk or on your Innovate 2011 Portal!

Each day that you complete all of that day’s session surveys, your name will be entered to win the daily IPOD touch!

On Wednesday be sure to complete your full conference evaluation to receive your free conference t-shirt!

SPONSORED BY



© Copyright IBM Corporation 2011. All rights reserved. The information contained in these materials is provided for informational purposes only, and is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, these materials. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software. References in these materials to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates. Product release dates and/or capabilities referenced in these materials may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion based on market opportunities or other factors, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability in any way. IBM, the IBM logo, Rational, the Rational logo, Telelogic, the Telelogic logo, and other IBM products and services are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation, in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

www.ibm/software/rational